JAKARTA, Apr 1 – Seventeen people were missing and feared buried after a landslide struck Indonesia, the national disaster agency said Saturday. The landslide hit Banaran village in Ponorogo district, East Java on Saturday morning, damaging up to 30 houses. National disaster agency spokesman Sutopo Purno Nugroho said there are conflicting reports about the number of people missing, but based on the data from the field we are searching for 17 people.

The local disaster agency along with the military, police and volunteers were evacuating the area. Indonesia is often hit by landslides. Twelve people including three children died in a landslide on the holiday island of Bali last February. In September, almost thirty people died in devastating floods and landslides in Garut, West Java. — AFP